A BILL to amend and reenact §48-1-204, §48-1-244 and §48-1-302 of
the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended; to amend and
reenact §48-14-408 and §48-14-410 of said code; and to amend
and reenact §48-24-106 of said code, all relating to child
support enforcement; lowering the accrued interest rate;
requiring employers provide information to the Bureau for
Child Support Enforcement; and making various technical
corrections.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

That §48-1-204, §48-1-244 and §48-1-302 of the Code of West
Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted; that §48-14-408 and §48-14-410 of said code be amended and reenacted; and that
§48-24-106 of said code be amended and reenacted, all to read as
follows:

ARTICLE 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS; DEFINITIONS.

§48-1-204. Arrearages or past due support defined.

“Arrearages” or “past due support” means the total of any
matured, unpaid installments of child support required to be paid
by an order entered or modified by a court of competent
jurisdiction, or by the order of a magistrate court of this state,
and shall stand, by operation of law, as a decretal judgment
against the obligor owing such support. The amount of unpaid
support shall bear interest from the date it accrued, at a rate of
ten dollars upon one hundred dollarsfive percent per annum, and
proportionately for a greater or lesser sum, or for a longer or
shorter time. Except as provided in rule 23 of rules of practice
and procedure for family law and as provided in section 1-302, a
child support order may not be retroactively modified so as to
cancel or alter accrued installments of support.

§48-1-244. Support defined.

“Support” means the payment of money, including interest:

(1) For a child or spouse, ordered by a court of competent
jurisdiction, whether the payment is ordered in an emergency,
temporary, permanent or modified order, the amount of unpaid
support shall bear simple interest from the date it accrued, at a
rate of ten dollars upon one hundred dollarsfive percent per
annum, and proportionately for a greater or lesser sum, or for a
longer or shorter time;

(2) To third parties on behalf of a child or spouse,
including, but not limited to, payments to medical, dental or
educational providers, payments to insurers for health and
hospitalization insurance, payments of residential rent or mortgage
payments, payments on an automobile or payments for day care; or

(3) For a mother, ordered by a court of competent
jurisdiction, for the necessary expenses incurred by or for the
mother in connection with her confinement or of other expenses in
connection with the pregnancy of the mother.

§48-1-302. Calculation of interest.

(a) Notwithstanding any other provisions of the code, if an
obligation to pay interest arises under this chapter, the rate of
interest is five percent per annum and proportionate thereto for a
greater or lesser sum, or for a longer or shorter time. Interest
awarded shall only be simple interest and nothing in this section
may be construed to permit awarding of compound interest. Interest
accrues only upon the outstanding principal of such obligation.

(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no court may
award or approve prejudgment interest in a domestic relations
action against a party unless the court finds, in writing, that the
party engaged in conduct that would violate subsection (b), Rule 11
of the West Virginia Rules of Civil Procedure. If prejudgment
interest is awarded, the court shall calculate prejudgment interest
from the date the offending representation was presented to the
court pursuant to subsection (a) of this section.

(c) Upon written agreement by both parties, an obligor may
petition the court to enter an order conditionally suspending the
collection of all or part of the interest that has accrued on past-due child support prior to the date of the agreement: Provided,
That said agreement shall also establish a reasonable payment plan
which is calculated to fully discharge all arrearages within
twenty-four months but not to exceed sixty months. Upon successful
completion of the payment plan, the court shall enter an order
which permanently relieves the obligor of the obligation to pay the
accrued interest. If the obligor fails to comply with the terms of
the written agreement, then the court shall enter an order which
reinstates the accrued interest.

(d) Amendments to this section enacted by the Legislature
during the 2006 regular session shall become effective January 1,
2007.

ARTICLE 14. REMEDIES FOR THE ENFORCEMENT OF SUPPORT OBLIGATIONS.

§48-14-408. Determination of amounts to be withheld.

Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the
contrary which provides for a limitation upon the amount which may
be withheld from earnings through legal process, the amount of an
obligor's aggregate disposable earnings for any given workweek
which may be withheld as support payments is to be determined in
accordance with the provisions of this subsection, as follows:

(1) After ascertaining the status of the payment record of the
obligor under the terms of the support order, the payment record
shall be examined to determine whether any arrearage is due for
amounts which should have been paid prior to a twelve-week period
which ends with the workweek for which withholding is sought to be
enforced.

(2) Prior to January 1, 2001, when none of the withholding is
for amounts which came due prior to such twelve-week period, then:

(A) When the obligor is supporting another spouse or dependent
child other than the spouse or child for whom the proposed
withholding is being sought, the amount withheld may not exceed
fifty percent of the obligor's disposable earnings for that week;
and

(B) When the obligor is not supporting another spouse or
dependent child as described in paragraph (A) of this subdivision,
the amount withheld may not exceed sixty percent of the obligor's
disposable earnings for that week.

(3) Prior to January 1, 2001, when a part of the withholding
is for amounts which came due prior to such twelve-week period,
then:

(A) Where the obligor is supporting another spouse or
dependent child other than the spouse or child for whom the
proposed withholding is being sought, the amount withheld may not
exceed fifty-five percent of the obligor's disposable earnings for
that week; and

(B) Where the obligor is not supporting another spouse or
dependent child as described in paragraph (A) of this subdivision,
the amount withheld may not exceed sixty-five percent of the
obligor's disposable earnings for that week.

(4) Beginning January 1, 2001, when none of the withholding is
for amounts which came due prior to such twelve-week period, then:

(A) When the obligor is supporting another spouse or dependent
child other than the spouse or child for whom the proposed
withholding is being sought, the amount withheld may not exceed
forty percent of the obligor's disposable earnings for that week;
and

(B) When the obligor is not supporting another spouse or
dependent child as described in paragraph (A) of this subdivision,
the amount withheld may not exceed fifty percent of the obligor's
disposable earnings for that week.

(5) Beginning January 1, 2001, when a part of the withholding
is for amounts which came due prior to such twelve-week period,
then:

(A) When the obligor is supporting another spouse or dependent
child other than the spouse or child for whom the proposed
withholding is being sought, the amount withheld may not exceed
forty-five percent of the obligor's disposable earnings for that
week; and

(B) Where the obligor is not supporting another spouse or
dependent child as described in paragraph (A) of this subdivision,
the amount withheld may not exceed fifty-five percent of the
obligor's disposable earnings for that week.

(6) In addition to the percentage limitations set forth in
subdivisions (2) and (3) of this section, it shall be a further
limitation that when the current month's obligation plus arrearages
are being withheld from salaries or wages in no case shall the
total amounts withheld for the current month's obligation plus
arrearage exceed the amounts withheld for the current obligation by
an amount greater than twenty-five percent of the current monthly
support obligation.

(7) The provisions of this section shall apply directly to the
withholding of disposable earnings of an obligor regardless of
whether the obligor is paid on a weekly, biweekly, monthly or other
basis.

(8) The Bureau for Child Support Enforcement has the authority
to prorate the current support obligation in accordance with the
pay cycle of the source of income. This prorated current support
obligation shall be known as the "adjusted support obligation".
The current support obligation or the adjusted support obligation
is the amount, if unpaid, on which interest will be charged.

(9) When an obligor acts so as to purposefully minimize his or
her income and to thereby circumvent the provisions of part 4 of
this article which provide for withholding from income of amounts
payable as support, the amount to be withheld as support payments
may be based upon the obligor's potential earnings rather than his
or her actual earnings, and such obligor may not rely upon the
percentage limitations set forth in this subsection which limit the
amount to be withheld from disposable earnings.

(10) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, the
Bureau for Child Support Enforcement may withhold not more than
fifty percent of any earnings denominated as an employment-related
bonus to satisfy an outstanding child support arrearage.

(A) Two weeks prior to issuing any bonus equal to or in excess
of $100 to an employee or employees, an employer shall notify the
Bureau for Child Support Enforcement, in a manner prescribed by the
bureau, of the employee or employees' name, address, social
security number, date of birth and amount of the bonus.

(B) If it is determined that an employee owes an arrearage, an
income withholding notice shall be issued pursuant to chapter
forty-eight, article fourteen, to the employer.

§48-14-410. Sending amounts withheld to bureau; notice.

After implementation in accordance with the provisions of
section 14-409, a source of income shall send the amount to be
withheld from the obligor’s income to the Bureau for Child Support
enforcement and shall notify the Bureau for Child Support
enforcement of the date of withholding, the same date that the
obligor is paid. If the source of income has more than fifty
employees, the source of income shall submit the support withheld
via electronic means in a manner prescribed by the Bureau for Child
Support enforcement.

A written, notarized acknowledgment executed pursuant to the
provisions of section twelveten, article five, chapter sixteen of
this code legally establishes the man as the father of the child
for all purposes and child support may be established in accordance
with the support guidelines set forth in article 13-101, et seq.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to make technical
corrections to the code, allow amnesty payment agreements to extend
past two years, require emplyers to notify the Bureau for Child
Support Enforcement prior to issuing a bonus to its employees and
require a source of income electronically remit support payments
via electronic means.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.